Product Description

LEARN TO DANCE the Waltz, Galop, Polka, Schottische, and Polka Mazurka. How To Dance Through Time, Volume I, The Romance of Mid 19th Century Couple Dances, Beginning Level, provides a unique and entertaining lesson for dance lovers. Using famous romantic dance music of the past, this video gives very clear 'How To' instructions to help the viewer learn to dance five popular couple dances. The many 'follow along' repetitions of each step are perfect for beginners. As with all the HOW TO DANCE THROUGH TIME videos, the dances are introduced with a concise, historical overview illustrated with authentic photographs and drawings. All the steps are carefully researched from authentic period manuscripts. Each instruction shows close up views and slow motion so that easy learning is possible. Professional dancers demonstrate step details. Following the instructional section, dancers perform all the dances with the authentic music and fashions of the era. Production of the How To Dance Through Time series follows rave reviews from consumers, libraries, colleges, dance lovers, and historians who have enthusiastically embraced the two volume video set, DANCETIME! 500 Years of Social Dance.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #132024 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-10-21
• Rating: G (General Audience)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 35 minutes

Library Journal
"This well-produced and entertaining video is highly recommended."

BOOKLIST
" What is so special about this instruction is that clear directions are broken in segments that delineate male and female parts."

Review
...provides an intriguing glimpse into the social world of [the 19th century] era. Each dance is preceded by a historical overview, with original lithographs from the period and entertaining commentary by Teten. We learn, for example, that ;the art of turning reflected elements of the Industrial Revolution, such as the spinning Jenny,' and that the Mazurka was a dance of ;majesty; unreservedness,; and ;allurement. Adequately primed for the tension and intrigue of the 19th-century ballroom, the student is then carefully guided through the basic steps. This well produced and entertaining video is highly recommended. --Library Journal

Customer Reviews

As entertaining as it is instructive
Back inOctober,I reviewed 2 DVDs put out by a dance company called Dance Through Time and gave them the highest praise. Now I am delighted to report that their 6-volume set "How to Dance Through Time" is now available on DVDs.

First the bare facts about the contents of each volume:

Vol 1: The Romance of Mid-19th Century Couple Dances (35 minutes)--Waltz, Galop, Polka, Schottische, Polka Mazurka
Vol 2: Dances of the Ragtime Era: 1910-1920 (50 minutes)--Animal Dances, Castle Walk, Tango, Maxixe, Hesitation Waltz
Vol 3: The Majesty of the Renaissance Dance (42 minutes)--Nido d'Amore
Vol 4: The Elegance of Baroque Social Dance (42 minutes)-Minuet, Allemande, Contredance
Vol 5: Victorian Era Couple Dances (54 minutes)--Waltz, Polka, Galop, Mazurka
Vol 6: A 19th Century Ball: the Charm of Group Dances (48 minutes)--Grande March, Quadrille, Cotillon.
The order in which these should be viewed would be Vol. 3, 4, 1, 5, 6, 2, since that will keep them in chronological order. As it turns out, Vol. 4 takes the dances in Vol. 1 and gives several variations on each.

The organization of the material in each of these sets is first to go over each step of a dance several times in different tempos, from different angles, and with full explanations by the creator and head of the company, Carol Teten. You can watch, then skip back and try the steps yourself as you watch a second time, and over and over until you have it down pat.

Or like myself, who can barely stand upright on a dance floor, you can view it for the pure enjoyment of watching these personable young dancers do their thing. As is rare in videos such as these, the enjoyment level is equal to the instructional content.

At the end of each lesson, in which the dancers are in modified period costumes, the entire sequence is danced again in full costume without any narration. You might want to note down which tracks these sequences occur so you can skip right to them should you wish to show them to friends or replay them for yourself. Or you can use the menu feature to do the same. Except in the first volume, which Ms. Teten admits was pretty experimental, she explains the social structure of the society as it is reflected in each dance and now and then gives us the "sub-text" of the steps-what the dancers are acting out either consciously or subliminally. It is all fascinating stuff.

That this is a low-budget effort is obvious but here less is more, since elaborate scenery would have distracted from the dancing itself. There is a little video distortion for the first minute of Vol. 1 and for a moment in Vol. 3, but these are negligible.

Who MUST have all six volumes? Public libraries, Music and Dance departments in all high schools and colleges, local theatre groups who do "period" plays, any one who loves dance, any one interested in social history, even any one interested in psychology! That does not leave many who would not want copies of this set. Want to try only one for openers? I recommend the most fun filled one, "Dances of the Ragtime Era."

These sets are available on tapes, but that precludes the flexibility you will want to replay specific dances

How to Dance through Time Vol I
I am very disappointed with this tape. It was obviously a very low budget effort. To me, the tape appears to have been shot with a home camera with the microphone mounted on the camera. During the initial introduction, the sound quality was VERY BAD. One could barely hear the lady giving the introduction. Then, during the instructional portion of the tape, someone was playing a piano in the background. Good idea but, the already bad audio plus the piano was too much. (I could not hear a work she was saying).